Jurors Examine Lizzi Marriott Crime Scene

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. – One by one jurors looked over the cliff's edge to where Seth Mazzaglia allegedly dumped the body of Elizabeth "Lizzi" Marriott after her murder in 2012.

The body fell some 20 feet before it hit the water, and has never been found.

Lower on the ledge at Peirce Island in Portsmouth, some hair evidence was discovered, Prosecutor Geoffrey Ward said to the jurors May 27, the first day of the Marriott murder trial.

As jurors viewed the scene, Mazzaglia stood aside with his defense team, his arms crossed, staring straight ahead and across the Piscataqua River to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.

He wore a tie, a black vest and sported a dark beard trimmed tight along his jawline. This was actually his second time back to the scene: he showed police investigators the spot back in October 2012, after he admitted that he had used a rope to strangle Marriott as part of a sex act, according to court documents.

The same documents recount how Mazzaglia dragged Marriott by her feet down the dirt path at Peirce Island and how, after dumping her nearly naked body over the edge, he recalled hearing the water splash.

Mazzaglia, 31, is on trial for murdering Marriott, a 19-year-old student at the University of New Hampshire, on Oct. 9, 2012. 

The jury also visited other scenes integral to the trial, including Mazzaglia's apartment in Dover, and the Residence Inn in Portsmouth, where Mazzaglia and his then girlfriend, Kathryn McDonough, reportedly dumped the tarp used to carry the body. The two later discarded evidence, including clothes they were wearing.

McDonough pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy, hindering prosecution and witness tampering in connection with the death, and she is expected to testify at Mazzaglia's trial in Strafford County Superior Court in Dover, N.H.